And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” (Matthew 27:35-40 ESV)
As I understand it, the events recorded in this passage are generally taken by the majority of scholars to be historical facts about how Jesus died.* That is he was crucified by the Roman official Pontius Pilate at the request of the Jewish leaders, that he was mocked and his clothes were gambled away, that he had said he would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, that he claimed to be the Son of God/Messiah, and that the sign of the charge against him read “the King of the Jews.” But I am not now interested in posting quotes of scholars to authenticate each of those pieces, rather in this post, I want particularly to discuss the fact that many mocked him and his claim to be messiah by asking him for proof of divine power—just as they do today. Some skeptics would rather look for (even demand) any other evidence but what is offered. This was apparently true in Jesus’ day too as he also pointed this out. He pointed out that people find ways to ignore evidence by judging appearances or demanding that it meet their expectations, rather than looking on with wisdom and discernment and conforming to what is:
“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates,
‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.” (Matthew 11:16-19)
And also: “He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’” (Luke 16:31)
But let us consider just these few facts which we do have reported to us, handed down through those who claimed to be witnesses of Jesus’ crucifixion. Let’s look and see what these events tell us when compared to documents written hundreds of years before Jesus was born. One of those facts in the passage from Matthew cited above was that the people mocked Jesus. “So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, ‘He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, “I am the Son of God.”’” (Matthew 27:41-43)
Interestingly enough, their skepticism (actually more like bare unbelief) which leads them to ask for proof (which they likely wouldn’t believe even if he gave it) itself becomes a proof in fulfillment of prophecy about the Messiah. A huge one comes from the twenty-second psalm.
But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
All who see me mock me;
they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
“He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him;
let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
(Psalm 22:6-8)
Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.
On you was I cast from my birth,
and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
Be not far from me,
for trouble is near,
and there is none to help.
(Psalm 22:9-11)
This from the Psalm which begins “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus (personally meaning every word of it as God had indeed forsaken him in that hour) offered it as proof to those who would hear it when he quoted from this psalm moments later. We can see into what must have been in Jesus’ heart and mind as he was hanging there on the cross by reading the rest of Psalm 22, though it was written hundreds of years earlier by Jesus’ ancestor King David. Our scenario from Matthew fulfills even more prophetic writing than that, though I will only offer a couple more to keep the post short. The first one is again from Psalm 22.
For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet—
I can count all my bones—
they stare and gloat over me;
they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.
(Psalm 22:16-18)
By the way, David wrote this psalm hundreds of years before crucifixion was even invented. A very large section of Isaiah (one of several) also refers to the future messiah, and the parallels are specific and striking. Only one man could fulfill all of Isaiah 53. Only one man did. Here’s a sampling.
In Isaiah: Jesus:
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, (didn’t speak to mockers and accusers)
yet he opened not his mouth
(Isaiah 53:7)
And they made his grave with the wicked (hung between two robbers and died)
and with a rich man in his death, (buried in Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb)
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth. (He was innocent and sinless)
(Isaiah 53:9)
So what is the meaning of this? So what if an innocent man claiming to be the Son of God died unjustly? Isaiah completes the sections with a gospel statement about the meaning of this good news packaged in such a terrible tragedy.
Therefore I [God] will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, (The messiah will live again in victory)
because he poured out his soul to death (because he died purposefully—
and was numbered with the transgressors; a clear reference to resurrection)
yet he bore the sin of many, (to take the sins of many on himself)
and makes intercession for the transgressors. (and intercedes by reconciling sinners (Isaiah 53:12) with God)
That same message of the good news of reconciliation with God is still being offered today. As it was said in the first century, so also it applies to us now, at least while we have breath: “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people.”
-The Apostle Paul, former enemy of Christ (Acts 13:26-31)
*“[Jesus’] execution on the charge of being a messianic pretender (‘king of the Jews’) is generally reckoned to be part of the bedrock data in the Gospel tradition.”
-James D. G. Dunn (“Can the Third Quest Hope to Succeed?” in Authenticating the Activities of Jesus, 34.)
“The majority of scholars . . . accept the titulus [Pilate’s sign of the charge against Jesus] as historical and genuine.” -Craig Evans (Authenticating the Activities of Jesus, 24.)
“There can be little doubt, historically speaking, that Jesus was executed as a messianic pretender.” -N.T. Wright (Christian Origins and the Question of God, vol 2; 522.)
[The 3 quotes above taken from William Lane Craig’s Reasonable Faith, 3rd ed., 305]
Stephen Dawe
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